Battlefield Earth vs Xanadu

The SciFi Channel is showing Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 starring John Travolta, and the ReplayTV is recording it. Normally I don’t watch TV-broadcast movies, but in this case I’m prepared to make an exception, because the only reason I want to watch Battlefield Earth is to see if it’s truly as awful as almost every single reviewer says it is.

If you believe IMDB, Battlefield Earth rates 2.4 out of 10. The worst movie I have ever seen in my entire life is Xanadu, and the IMDB voters give that 4.3 out of 10.

Xanadu is a musical about Greek gods returning to California and opening a magical disco roller rink. It has a lead actor who cannot even begin to act, for whom this was his finest hour. It has special effects which would have be charming if they were filmed in Super-8 by Mike Jittlov, but are just jarringly cheap and unconvincing in something that was supposed to be a major motion picture. It is so awful it make me cringe with embarrassment for the people who appeared in it; it forever soiled my enjoyment of a couple of perfectly good ELO songs.

So, can Battlefield Earth be significantly more awful than that? I’m very skeptical. I will, of course, post an update when I get around to watching it.